Friday, November 30, 2007

discovering paint

She caught me. I had planned on my little person napping for another hour. I had all of my paints out in plain view as I attempted to finish up a painting. I heard her feet coming. There was no time to hide the evidence. "Hi Mommy! Can I paint too?"

I have a confession. Somehow I've managed to let my youngest get to the age of two and a half without painting. That's not to say she hasn't used the water color disc paint, but I've avoided the gloppy, smooshy, messy, real paint up until yesterday. I decided it was about time I threw caution to the wind, outfitted her in a paint smock and let her go at it. Nora was beside herself with excitement. I dug out our big bottles of kid paint only to discover that every color except for the purple had dried up. I'm blushing. However, Nora didn't care a bit that her palette was limited. If purple was what we had, purple was fine with her. As she dipped her brush into the soft, slimy paint I could see her inner light glow brighter. At first she painted very slow and cautious. Then she couldn't get enough. She painted bolder and faster. She needed more paint and paper. Her confidence was growing as she discovered the satisfaction of brush strokes. She didn't stop until she had created a masterpiece for her siblings and Mommy and Daddy too. Never mind that the paint smock was hardly keeping the paint off her clothes, hands and face. There was paint on the table, her chair and even the floor. Breathe. It's washable paint. Painting is essential. Who am I to deny her?

We decided that we would ask Santa for new bottles of (washable) paint this Christmas and composed a letter right away, before I could wimp out.